Antlers Up! Bull Moose in the Boundary Waters by Katie Mumm.
Greetings from the North Shore, where moose sightings abound and sunny days invite exploration of the woods and waters.
A summer’s day on the Gunflint Trail. Photo courtesy of Clearwater Historical Lodge.
Walleye and brook trout fishing is pretty good, too, from the reports we have heard. But it’s dry. We haven’t had a good rain for at least two months, so an open burning ban has been declared. This means absolutely no fires are allowed in backcountry sites. Let’s all honor this.
For more information on the fire ban, click here.
Meanwhile, we are so enjoying the sun and balmy days.
The next few weeks will be very busy on the North Shore as the summer season blooms.
Lilac season has finally arrived! Photo courtesy of Joy and Company.
First up, families and community members are invited to see the culminating efforts of the Grand Marais Art Colony‘s young artists working with Nancy Carlson at the Character Creation Camp, June 19 – 23.
The Youth Character Creation Camp is being held at Studio 21.
This open studio event will give attendees a chance to see student work around invented characters, brought to life through artwork and the written word. Throughout the camp, students will have gained skills in character development, storyboarding, and sequential art as it works in picture books. The public is invited to attend from 11:30 am to noon each day through June 23.
Art Night, a weekly event at Joy and Company will be from 4-6 pm on Thursday.
Art Night will be held at Joy & Co from 4-6 pm Thursday.
Each week, participants are invited to learn about different media used to make art. Demos and hands-on experiences are part of the event. Free, with a suggested donation. Everyone invited.
Also on Thursday, the Grand Marais Farmer’s Market (formerly the Thursday Local Food Market) is held in the parking lot of the Cook County Community Center from 4:30-6 pm.
The Grand Marais Farmer’s Market, featuring a wide variety of locally grown vegetables, wood-fired artisan bread, baked goods, fresh flowers, and more is held at the Cook County Community Center from 4:30-6 p.m. Thursdays.
The Market features locally grown vegetables in season, artisan breads, sweets from Crosby Bakery, maple syrup, fresh eggs, and more. It is held every Thursday through early October. Vendors have plenty of vegetables this year.
The popular Lutsen 99er race is this weekend, attracting competitors from all over the country to sample the back roads in Cook County.
The Lutsen 99er is this weekend.
The race is an ultra-marathon mountain biking event. There are 4 distances, including 19er, 39er, 69er, and 99er-mile options, catering to all riding levels and abilities. The course consists of snowmobile and ski trails, Forest Service roads, and a bit of pavement and single track.
New this year — The Lutsen 99er is located at Superior National Golf Course. Find out more information here.
Also on Friday, the Johnson Heritage Post and the Cook County Historical Society will host a Culture Crawl from 5-7 pm.
The Johnson Heritage Post and the Cook County Historical Society will co-host a Culture Crawl on June 23 from 5-7 pm.
First, stop by either the Cook County History Museum or the Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery to begin your evening and pick up an event card. Each site will provide you with a sticker to place on your card, and a completed card can be exchanged for a free glass of beer, wine, or non-alcoholic beverage at The Gunflint Tavern. It’s a great opportunity to find out more about the history of the county and the art we celebrate. Open to all. Free.
On Saturday, the Cook County Market will be held in the parking lot of The Hub from 10 am to 2 pm.
The Cook County Market is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday in the Senior Center parking lot, The Hub. Birdhouses on a Stick, above, by Papa’s Hands.
The market features a wide variety of arts and crafts created by local artists and artisans. There’s also live music. All invited.
On Saturday night, the North Shore Music Association joins the Cook County Pride Month celebration with music of hope, change, and connection. Come for an evening of gorgeous harmonies and inspiring lyrics by Sara Thomsen & Paula Pedersen.
Paula Pedersen, left, and Sara Thomsen will be at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on June 24. The concert is at 7 pm.
Thomsen is an award-winning songwriter known for her efforts to build community through music, including as director of the Echoes of Peace Choir. She is the producer of five solo albums, two albums with her group Three Altos, and a duet album with her spouse, Paula Pedersen. Pedersen is an educator, singer, and interculturalist.
Tickets for this concert are on sale now at northshoremusicassociation.com and will also be available at the door starting at 6 pm on the day of the performance.
This is the weekend for the Park Point Art Fair in Duluth. More than 100 artists from throughout the region have been juried into the show. You will find ceramics, glass, jewelry, painting, photography, fiber, woodwork, and more in the tent city set up at the end of Park Point.
The Park Point Art Fair is Saturday and Sunday opening at 10 am each day.
Treasure Jars, stoneware and wood, by Grand Marais potter Natalie Sobanja. She will be participating in the Park Point Art Fair in Duluth this weekend.
The Art Fair also includes live music and a wide variety of food vendors.
On Sunday, Evan Larson and Lane Johnson will present “Reconsidering Fire in the BWCA” at the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center on the Gunflint Trail from 2-3 pm.
Blueberry Hill. Photo courtesy of Chik-Wauk Museum.
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) is a place that is known and loved by many. The connection that many people feel to the waters and forests of this Border Lakes wilderness help to make it the perfect place to help us contemplate the long-term relationships among people and fire in the Great Lakes Region, and how notions of Wilderness as untrammeled and unpeopled have created significant challenges to the diversity and resiliency of this place.
In this presentation, Evan Larson & Lane Johnson will share how a network of tree-ring data and decades of archaeological work that span the BWCAW has been contextualized with the rich cultural history and body of Indigenous Knowledge, also referred to as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, carried by Anishinaabeg communities connected to this landscape to offer a transformative perspective on the role of people in actively shaping what is often thought of as a pristine place.
The event is free. All welcome.
On Tuesday, Dappled Fern Fibers will hold another session of the Crochet Club — Teens and Preteens from 1-3 pm at the shop.
Dappled Fern Fibers is holding a Crochet Club for Teens and Preteens on Tuesdays from 1-3 pm this summer. Pictured is a crochet frog.
The Crochet Club, for ages 11-18, is a space for kids to crochet and connect. This group is hosted by Amelia Mattson (Cook County High School student) with support from Dorothy Broomall (Dappled Fern Owner) and other yarn shop staff. Each session is $10. Open to all. Parents and drop-ins are welcome. For more information, click here or visit the shop at 15 S. Broadway.
Exhibits:
This is the last weekend to see “Beauty is Everywhere,” an exhibit featuring work by three artists, which is currently on view at the Johnson Heritage Post.
Beauty is Everywhere, an exhibit by three artists, continues at the Johnson Heritage Post through Sunday.
Artists Rosemary Hultman, Jennifer Scammahorn and Cynthia Starkweather-Nelson work with a variety of different media. The exhibit continues through Sunday, June 25. Free.
The Heritage Post is open from 10 am to 4 pm Wednesday through Sunday. It is closed Monday and Tuesday.
The Duluth Art Institute has a number of exhibits, including a virtual exhibit of work by the 2023 Emerging Photographers, an exhibit that ran at the Art Institute earlier this year.
Wisconsin Point by Bosco Jacobson is one of the images in the Emerging Photographers virtual exhibit at the Duluth Art Institute.
To see the virtual exhibit, click here.
The Thunder Bay Art Gallery will open a new exhibit on Friday, June 23. The exhibit is entitled Ziibaaska’iganagoodayan – The Jingle Dress with work by Christian Chapman and represents work recently acquired by the art gallery.
Christian Chapman works on one of his images of the jingle dress. His exhibit opens at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery on June 23.
Chapman is of Anishinaabe heritage from Fort William First Nation, Ontario. He creates two-dimensional mixed-media artwork that fuses elements of painting, drawing, and printmaking. The Anishinaabe women depicted in the newly acquired portraits are his friends, family, and fellow artists. The exhibit continues through Sept. 17.
Kudos:
May Matthews, a quilter and a member of the North Shore Artists League, won 1st place in the modern quilt-making category in the 2023 Minnesota Quilt Show with her quilt: “Improvisation.”
Mary Matthews with her quilt, “Improvisation,” which won 1st place in the modern category at the 2023 Minnesota Quilt Show.
Upcoming:
Duluth painter Lee Englund will open an exhibit at the Johnson Heritage Post with an opening reception from 5-7 pm Friday, June 30. The title of the exhibit is “Oil Paintings from Life.”
Lee Englund will open an exhibit at the Johnson Heritage Post with a reception from 5-7 pm June 30.
Englund has spent his life dedicated to art and the process of sharing it, and his skill is on full display in this exhibit which highlights the beauty of the North Shore. Note: A portion of all exhibition sales will be donated to fund Alzheimer’s research.
The Grand Marais Arts Festival will be in downtown Grand Marais July 8-9 this year featuring a great array of local and regional artists.
The Grand Marais Arts Festival is July 8-9 in downtown Grand Marais.
Sixty artist booths will line the streets downtown exhibiting ceramics, paintings, jewelry, photography, woodwork, sculpture, fiber art, prints, and more. Click here for more information, and stay tuned.
Trinity Lutheran Church of Hovland has a number of events planned for the summer:
- July 18: Journey Songs of Pilgrimage and Faith—an evening of hymns and stories related to the theme of boats and journeys of longing. Presentation by Pastor William Beckstrand. 7 pm followed by pie and ice cream.
- Aug. 22: A Home in Hovland: Friends and Neighbors in Shared Places of Community and Faith—a look at encounters of migration in the human experience, and the immigrants and families who journeyed here to make Hovland their home. Presentation by Phil Anderson, Hovland resident and Professor Emeritus of Church History, North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago. 7 pm followed by pie and ice cream.
- Sept. 30: The “raising” of a votive ship built by Mark Hansen. WDSE (PBS North) of Duluth will be filming this as the second half of an upcoming episode of their program The Slice, capturing “the unique character, events, and experiences found in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.” 6 pm — Fishcake dinner; 7 pm — Program led by Mark Hansen, boat builder and founder of North House Folk School.
Artists at Work:
Silver Bay Loading, ink, and watercolor, by Bryan Hansel.
Adam Swanson’s pollinator mural just installed at the Depot in Duluth.
Patricia Canelake is hanging an exhibit at the Prove Gallery in Duluth entitled, “Untethered.” The exhibit opens July 14.
In Lakeville, MN by Greg Mueller.
Online Findings:
Kristofer Bowman welcomes many to his shop in Grand Marais, Upstate MN, with a hug. Read what one customer writes here.
Nibi Chronicles: We are still here, and so is great grandma’s lilac.
Staci Drouillard’s latest column in Great Lakes Now. Read the column here.
Online Music:
The Thirsty River – Toast from WTIP North Shore Community Radio on Vimeo.
Live Music:
Thursday, June 22:
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 7-9 pm
- Jim Miller, Cascade Restaurant and Pub, 6-8 pm
Friday, June 23:
- Crazy Chester, Up Yonder, 8:30-11:59 pm
Saturday, June 24:
- Fred Anderson, Senior Center Parking Lot, 10 am
- Michele Miller, Harbor Park, 4-7 pm
- MYsterious WAYs, Birch Terrace, 5-8 pm
- Sara Thomsen & Paula Pedersen, Arrowhead Center for the Arts, 7 pm
- Crazy Chester, Up Yonder, 8:30-11:59 pm
Sunday, June 25:
- Briand Morrison, Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 10-12 pm
- Joe Paulik, Raven’s Nest at Gunflint Tavern, 1-4 pm
- Jim Miller, Harbor Park, 1:30-3 pm
- Ben Suchy and Jon Wayne, North Shore Winery, 3:30-5:30 pm
- Timmy Haus, Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 4-6 pm
- Open Mic Hosted by Pete K, Up Yonder, 5-8 pm
Monday, June 26:
- John Gruber, Harbor Park, 1:30-3 pm
Tuesday, June 27:
- Eric Frost, North Shore Winery, 5:30-7:30 pm
- DJ “Birthday Gurl,” Up Yonder, 4-10 pm
Wednesday, June 28:
- Pat Eliasen, Mogul’s Grille & Tap Room, 10-12 pm
Thursday, June 29:
- Michele Miller, Harbor Park, 4-7 pm
- Gordon Thorne, North Shore Winery, 7-9 pm
- Jim Miller, Cascade Restaurant and Pub, 6-8 pm
Friday, June 30:
- Michele Miller, Harbor Park, 3:30-6:30 pm
- Joe Paulik, Pat Flack, and Friends, Gunflint Tavern, 5-8 pm
- DJ “Birthday Gurl,” Gunflint Tavern, 8-11 p
Saturday, July 1:
- Sky Blue Jazz, Cascade Restaurant and Pub, TBA
- Fred Anderson, Senior Center Parking Lot, 10 am
- The Southpaws, Birch Terrace, 4-8 pm
- Joe Paulik, Pat Flack, and Friends, Gunflint Tavern, 6-9 pm
- DJ “Birthday Gurl,” Up Yonder, 8:30-11:59 pm
Photographs:
We were lucky again this week. Here’s a selection of what we found:
Wildlife:
Oh, Deer by Christian Dalbec.
Luna Moth by Chuck Olsen.
That focus! Photo by Mark Smith.
Butterfly confab, Cherokee National Forest by Donna Price.
Peoplescapes:
Happy Father’s Day with Dave Seaton by Ben Seaton.
Dill, it is! Photo by Ian Andrus of Creaking Tree Farm, one of the farmers selling at the Grand Marais Farmer’s Market every Thursday.
Solo paddler on Lake Superior today by Bill Hansen.
First Harvestscape:
First harvest by Staci Drouillard.
Flower & Plantscapes:
Beautiful Invasion by Christian Dalbec.
It’s OK if you don’t fit into the crowd by James Joerke.
Twin Berry? Photo by Tor Torkildson.
Landscapes, Cloudscapes, Waterscapes & Rockscapes:
A Supercell over the Plains. The photographer is unknown.
Dawn in the Boundary Waters by Layne Kennedy.
Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness Study Area in New Mexico. Photo courtesy of the US Interior Dept.
Gooseberry Falls — Summer by Paul Schmidt.
The Hjørdis is sailing daily out of North House Folk School. For reservations, click here
Pizazz by Christian Dalbec.
Lovely in the Boundary Waters by Kjersti Vick.
A stunning sunrise at Hollow Rock by Nathan Klok.
Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. Photo courtesy of the US Geological Survey.
And last, but not least, this precious moment:
Beauty on a Thursday Night by Jeffrey Doty.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
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